If you use a Mac and an iPad, then Twelve South’s new HoverBar is for you. It lets you use your iPad 2 an adjustable arm that floats iPad 2 next to an iMac or Apple display, allowing you to use iPad as a secondary, touchscreen computer.

[It] turns iPad into the ultimate sidecar for an iMac or Apple display, presenting more ways to use iPad more often. Connect HoverBar to your Mac, snap iPad 2 into the secure clip and you now have one powerful dual-computer work setup. Having iPad floating next to your Mac allows you to monitor your Twitter stream, stocks and local weather — or run FaceTime on your iPad while you email, edit a file, or cut a video on your Mac.

It has been over a year but Gear Chat is back and we’re talking tech. In this first episode Thomas and I talk about the Samsung Galaxy Note, the Series 7 Slate tablet and what configuration of Apple computing products is best. Future episodes will include Gaming and eBook segments and much more. We also want to hear from you! What content do you want covered? What questions do you have? Would you like us to do the podcast as a live, call-in conversation? We want to know.

Happy listening and, as always, thanks for sharing via Twitter and Facebook.

In part 2 of this series, I took the fan out of my 13″ MacBook Pro, cleaned it and lightly lubricated it. For about a day, the fan noise was almost non-existent and the heating issue was mildly approved. Unfortunately, the noise quickly returned along with the hot CPU. This problem had to be fixed one way or another or I was going to have to throw the computer out of the window since it had become painfully slow and buggy. The next plan was to buy a new fan and replace the loud, failing original. I also decided to double the RAM from 4 to 8 gigs since the back would already… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

In part 1 of this 3 part series, I discovered that my computer was not acting happy due to a fan issue. Catch up with the post here to follow my MacBook adventure. One goal of this project is to avoid the Apple Store and keep the cost down as low as possible. The fan noise is definitely out of control, the machine is running hot and it has become super slow. My next plan of action is to open up the case to clean and lubricate the fan. I took a few photos to explain how to open the machine, take out the fan and clean and lubricate. Remember, this is purely for… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

My adventure began with a week-long search of forums and websites for easy fixes for the fan issue. It seems the issue is common for fans to go out or become noisy and various fixes are posted across the web. This is an account of my journey through diagnosis and home repair. My goal is to begin simple and free and work up until my MacBook is like new again.

This post recalls diagnosing the problem and possible plans of action.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

It’s Black Friday and that means you can save some cash on things you want for yourself or to give to family and friends. Discounts are good but you know what is better? FREE! And we’re giving away some awesome stuff today absolutely free. All you need to do is enter.

This item has a value of $34.99. What is it and how can you win? Read on!… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Today’s Gear Deal is something we have not previously highlighted as a deal. With Creative Labs’ Sound Blaster Wireless Audio Transmitter and Receiver Bundle
you simply plug the device into a USB port, and you can stream your iTunes music wirelessly to powered speakers. It requires no cables or network configuration and comes bundled with a remote control. Moreover, thanks to the fact that it uses uncompressed Xtreme Fidelity enhanced music the sound is great. Finally, with the remote control you can play, pause and skip through your music from the comfort of your couch.

Usually $119.99 our Gear Sponsor has tracked it down for just $69.99. It will even ship for free. Details

iOS 5.0 and iCloud go live later today. With them come a host of opportunities to have all of your Macs and iDevices works together flawlessly. (Or at least we hope flawlessly since the initial MobileMe rollout was a disaster.) One issue that came up for me was the desire to get away from using Gmail as my address book and move all my contacts to iCloud. The reason for this is rather simple — I want one set of address book data and I cannot stand the anemic way Google handles things in this regard. There are numerous way to do this but I thought I would walk you through the method I just… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

UPDATE (With apologies): Turns out this is only in the current Lion Beta, something I never would have imagined. Thanks to Rodney for pointing it out. We’ll let you know when it makes its way into a full release since it is quite useful!

The more I use OS X Lion the more I like the features it brought to the Mac and, although it can be a bit inconsistent, I am really learning to appreciate fullscreen apps. I’m liking Mission Control more and more too. The only issue I have had has been the fact that when I have a lot of applications in fullscreen mode it can take a good bit… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Let’s face it, the iPad is eating everyone else’s lunch and that not only goes for other tablets but for traditional computers as well.

MG Siegler has a rather interesting and excellent post over on TechCrunch the other day that makes this point rather well. In it he argues that the iPad represents a Clear and Present Danger to the traditional PC market. The reason? Unlike those of us who write for a living (whether as bloggers or… say… clergy) and need something that we can use to write hundreds or thousands of words, the vast majority of people can use an iPad (he is careful to point out that… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

There’s an old story about three blind men. One grabbed an elephant’s trunk and thought it was a snake. One grabbed a leg and thought it was a tree trunk. Another grabbed… Oh you get the idea.

The bottom line is, when you look at only one piece of anything you are not going to see clearly… Or correctly. Yet time and again decisions get made upon this small-picture limited-think. Here’s yet another example. A post over on Cult of Mac today offers the following.

Here’s an idea: let’s cut Apple in half. Sure, the company is the most profitable on the planet and grabs more headlines than the U.S. President. The trouble, according

Evernote is in the midst of their “first-ever Evernote Trunk Conference” and had some big news to share.

Skitch

As the above “Skitched” image indicates Evernote bought the image app/service Skitch and is making the app completely free. As they explain

We love Skitch so much that we decided to buy the company. Skitch is an amazing Mac application that’s changed the way people capture, annotate and share images. Chief Skitchers, Cris Pearson and Keith Lang are moving from Australia and joining Evernote to lead a significantly expanded Skitch team focused on supercharging the product.

Evernote goes on to… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Last night I was a bit under the weather. I went in search of something to watch and came upon the new Starz/BBC series Strike Back on my iPad’s browser. A few taps of the screen and it was playing on my large Samsung HDTV. It was just another reminder of the way in which Apple’s technology can create a seamless ecosystem for work and entertainment.

Then today Cult of Mac published a post entitled Could Apple Enter Sub-$1K Premium TV Market With A Real iTV?

In it they write

News that high-end TVs are nearing the sub $1,000

Want richer bass, higher clarity and an all around enhanced audio experience? Bongiovi Acoustics: Bongiovi DPS (Digital Power Station) technology has it. The technology is currently available in iHome dock stations and select Toyota models and, for the first time, Bongiovi’s technology is available as an iOS app. The technology ”re-masters your compressed digital audio files at the source and then, using device specific profiles, optimizes the output for your listening device (headphone, speaker, earbud, etc).”

I tried the iOS app and was rather impressed with the enhanced audio pumped out by my iPod touch and my iPad.

As the… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Last week Apple release Mac OS X ‘Lion’ with more than a million folks upgrading on the first day, and immediately we reported a couple of compatibility issues. I noted LiveScribe and Dan noted Sonos – both recommended holding off upgrading until compatibility issues have been resolved. We have also noted that the Neat Company has updated their software to be Lion compatible, but that seems to be fairly rare.

But in general the news is about issues – and mainly compatibility problems. Some others include Adobe products, Microsoft Office, Freeverse Games, FileMaker, MindJet, Steam, and many others.

MacWorld has… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...